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New court date set in Chavez case

A new court date has been set for an 18-year-old Bartlesville man accused of a plotting a mass shooting at the Bartlesville High School.

Associate District Judge Russell Vaclaw on Friday ordered Sammie Eaglebear Chavez to appear in court Feb. 21 for a preliminary hearing in connection with his charges, which include planning, attempting or conspiring to perform an act of violence.

Chavez’ appearance in court Friday was the first since his initial appearance following his arrest on Dec. 14.

Chavez was arrested after police received reports that the BHS senior was planning a mass shooting at the school. He is being held at the Washington County Correctional Facility on a $1 million bond.

Following the arrest, police served a search warrant at a home on Adeline Street in west Bartlesville, where Chavez reportedly resides with his mother.

According to the “search warrant return” filed Dec. 17, police found a “Marlin model 99 M1, .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle with stock cut off and made into pistol grip type rifle” as well as two swords. Additionally, police reported finding a red, white and blue wallet that contained a “RIP Graveyard” drawing, another drawing referred to as “suicidal Timmy,” a love letter and a recipe for homemade alcohol.

Police also say they found a spiral notebook that contained 59 pages of writings from April 2011 through September of last year. Additionally, they say there were two handwritten notes in the home as well as a “small black photo album” containing photos of seniors that had been cut out of an Examiner-Enterprise insert about 2012 graduates.

Chavez’ arrest came after a student reportedly told authorities that he had been in the cafeteria on Dec. 12 when Chavez “tried to recruit other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the school cafeteria where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the doors shut,” a probable cause affidavit states.

Chavez reportedly said that if the students that were assisting him did not do as they were supposed to do “he would not hesitate to kill them and/or himself.” Police say he planned to “place bombs by the doors so when the police arrived he would detonate the bombs, killing the police as they entered the building.”